


stone cold

by aelisheva



Category: Spinning Silver - Naomi Novik
Genre: F/M, Hurt/Comfort, ONLY AN ACT OF TRUE LOVE CAN THAW A FROZEN HEART, POV First Person, Post-Canon Fix-It, Snow Queen Elements, also i may have borrowed some elements from the anastasia movie..., and get the chance to care for each other, buckle up assholes, no one asked for this but i'm DOING IT ANYWAY, please let these two actually talk to each other abt their feelings, so uh, the real book didn't really give them a happy ending but that's what fanfic is for
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-11
Updated: 2019-11-11
Packaged: 2021-01-28 23:09:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,458
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21400171
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aelisheva/pseuds/aelisheva
Summary: It would've been a perfectly pleasant day in the tsar's palace if a rogue Staryk nobleman hadn't broken in and tried to kill everyone.___One week after Irina broke the spell on her husband, a Staryk curse that was meant for him ends up hitting her and freezing her heart. It's up to the tsar to save her -- god help him.****content warning for brief mentions of blood/gore*******
Relationships: Irina/Mirnatius (Spinning Silver)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 27





	stone cold

**Author's Note:**

> if you're wondering why staryk have all these new powers
> 
> or other plot-based facts
> 
> say to yourself
> 
> "it's just a fic,
> 
> i should really just relax."

It would've been a perfectly pleasant day in the tsar's palace if a rogue Staryk nobleman hadn't broken in and tried to kill everyone. Luckily, all of the (human) gentry at least had the sense to dash out of the room before the real trouble began. And at least the guards were quick to raise their swords around my husband and I....until the Staryk froze them all in ice. So, we were left to dash up the grand staircase out of the dining room, dodging ice blasts all the way.

Something shattered back down in the dining room and we screamed in unison. Which was especially odd, since we never did anything in unison. Fear really must bring out a different side of people.

"Oh," the Staryk snarled, "but this little bit of vandalism is _nothing_ compared to the destruction you brought to the Staryk stronghold, _demon!!!"_

"The demon's_ dead!_ You're a bit too late for that!" I shouted, then immediately regretted. Since when was I so fresh?

"Since when are you so_ fresh?"_ Mirnatius yelled over all the blasting and crashing.

"Had to learn it from _someone,"_ I pushed, shoving him up the last few stairs and towards the entrance to our newly-shared joint bedroom (All we've done in it so far is sleep, neither of us want to go any further at the moment......And at_ this_ moment, we _definitely_ do _not_ snuggle each other in there. Not even for warmth. Not even on the coldest winter nights. Despite what all of the court gossip may -- ).

The nobleman shrieked again. I jabbed a shaking finger at her husband. "You stay up there and don't come down until my signal."

"No!" Mirnatius shouted. "That's a terrible plan!"

"You're more valuable to this kingdom than I am --"

"Well, I highly disagr -- _NO!"_

While we had been busy talking, a stray blast of ice magic had shot up the stairway, and landed in my chest like a dagger. My screams soon joined my husband's, and the Staryk began laughing wildly below us. Blood was already gushing out of the wound like a little red waterfall. The pain was awful. It was piercing. It shocked me completely still. It --

_Was nothing. I felt nothing._

_I collapsed against the grand railing of the staircase, and gripped onto it for dear life. Mirnatius kept shouting and screaming my name, trying to shake me. And I kept pushing him off -- even though moving my arms felt like moving through mud. Couldn't he see that all of his yelling was hurting my ears? Couldn't he just leave me alone?_

_Apparently not. Now the fool had flipped me around so we were face-to-face again. I snarled, but my lip moved up at the pace of a heavy curtain. _

_"He froze your heart!" he kept yelling at me, scared that it wasn't getting through my brain. _

_"Alright, alright," I kept telling him. Why did it sound like both of us were talking through a wall? I suddenly lurched back over to the staircase. "Can you just let me figure it out myself? You were never any help to me. Exorcising that demon didn't change anything about you."_

_The fool had the audacity to tear up at that. Tear up! What a weakling. "You can demonize who I was when I was possessed all you -- all you want later, but n-now let me please help you --"_

_I froze. Something new was happening downstairs._

_"Irina....."_

_Suddenly overcome with a burst of energy, I leaned my head down from the railing to see a tall figure staring back at me. _

_Mirnatius?_

_"Weren't you just behind me?" I slurred. I went to turn around to check, but my neck wouldn't move. I was stuck in place, gazing down at this Mirnatius with a feral look in his eyes and blue-tinged skin._

_A voice behind me shuddered. "Irina, don't listen to him, he's ---"_

_"Jump from the railing."_

_A giggle bubbled up from inside me. "...What? But you're so so far down....."_

_He thrust out his arms. "I will catch you, my love. Just. Jump."_

_"I --" The figure behind me, whoever it was, sprinted away. So much for him. "...In fact," I began tentatively, "maybe I will."_

_"Yesss," this Mirnatius hissed, then quieter, "if the demon tsar is too much of a coward to show himself, then I will take from him that which he --"_

_CRASH._

_From behind me, a heavy stone bust sailed over the railing and clean onto this Mirnatius's head. He collapsed to the ground unconscious, gash growing._

_One leg over the railing, I screamed and screamed. "You killed my husband! You killed my husband! You --"_

_The assailant flipped me around to reveal that they were.....my husband. "No I didn't!" he shouted back. "Your 'husband..'" he grabbed for the ice in my chest, "was trying to kill _you!" _And with that, he yanked it out of me._

_I fell back onto the stairs with the real Mirnatius and he caught me. I gasped at the bloody piece of ice that was now laying on the red rug above the stairs. I grasped around the front of my dress, desperate to hold in any last bit of cold that was melting away. That cold was so blunt, so harsh, so beautiful......_

_Mirnatius must have also grabbed that grand fur cape from the room, because here he was wrapping this new thing around me. He pulled me in to his chest so I could absorb even more body heat. "Please don't die, love," he kept saying to me, "please don't die...."_

_"Since when do you love me?" I blurted out. "I thought this little thing was one-sided." Christ. Now I was the one acting like a fool -- a _drunk _fool._

_He stared at me, eyes piercing worse than any ice ever could. "What? If -- if my mother's glamour hadn't made me so _handsome," _he spit out, "you'd see me for the monster I am. 'E__xorcising that demon didn't change anything about me,' remember?"_

_I narrowed my eyes. "That...that isn't true, I --" I froze. "It was like the ice made me say it."_

_He nodded. "Because he froze your heart. Well, he meant to freeze my heart......That kind of Staryk magic was the only kind Chernobog actually told me about. Probably because he already controlled all of me_ _." He looked down at the now shrinking hole in my gown and flesh. Even the blood was fading away._

_"Good thing...good thing for magic, huh?" I managed to crack._

_He put a hand on my head. "You're still shaking."_

_"I'm not shaking." What was he talking about? No matter. As long as he kept his hand right there....Against my better judgement, I leaned into the touch._

_"There's still some ice inside you. That's why you're still acting so....distant."_

_"I'm always distant."_

_"Yeees, but this is the first time I've seen you not being you. You know, clever, brilliant, kind..."_

_"Heartless."_

_He blinked. "A heartless person wouldn't _jump off a staircase _to be wrapped in the arms of their _husband."

_I scrunched my face again. "Oh? Like you wouldn't do the same thing if some....ice spirit started beckoning to you dressed as me?"_

_"I--"_

_"No...no, that's ridiculous. She'd never seduce you dressed as _me._ Maybe as a better version of me. With a husky voice and thicker hair and --" I coughed. All of this talking was making my throat hoarse. _

_Mirnatius grabbed my head. "Irina! Irina, look at me!" So I did. His face was covered in bits of ice from all of the crossfire. (Or should I say cross-ice?) _ _There was a little clump of snow on his cheek, so I kissed it off. He froze. So did I? Was that too much for him? Was it --_

_"True love's kiss," he started. "That's it. That's how I cure you..." He sighed. "Of course Chernobog wouldn't tell me about _that _part." He looked down at me. I blinked back up at him. He placed his hands more squarely on my face and kissed me, short and sweet. I looked back up at him as if....as if....well, anyway, I was smiling now. I put my hands in his curls and pulled his mouth back down. Grinning, he kissed me back again._

_I didn't know if it was from the spell breaking or not, but now I wasn't feeling cold at all. _

"Irina, are you feeling better now, love?"

"Much better. Much warmer, _my angel."_

My husband laughed. "Good to hear, _sweetness."_

"Oh, anything for you, _my --"_

I laughed again as he pressed a quick round of kisses to my face. Now it seems like we have a new place to cuddle under fur blankets.

**Author's Note:**

> comments fuel the author! and feel free to yell at me about this book (or anything, really) at my tumblr @dumpsterbagel !!


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